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IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery A Little Progress

Goldwork embroidery is so much fun!  There is really nothing else like it. Working with threads that sparkle and shine, shimmer and glimmer is a feast for the eyes. It is great fun when the stitching moves along, and good progress is made. Then, once in a while, there is a little stumbling block that lands in the middle of the path and causes some moments of  – well – frustration would be a polite word.

Start of Goldwork couching for IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design on Altar Frontal
Start of Goldwork couching for IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design on Altar Frontal

The stitching of the goldwork threads is pretty straight forward for the IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design. This project is the IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Pattern with the cross background talked about here:  Simple Design Framed Up  Two strands of the K1 gold thread are laid side by side, starting down the middle of a section of the cross. Dealing with the ends of the cross is going to be a matter of trial and error.  I have a photo of a lovely banner made by Watts and Company between the years 1916 to 1918.  The banner is Christ seated on the throne of victory and giving Peter the Keys to the Kingdom.  Christ is wearing a crown that has the most beautiful stitching imaginable. It is an exquisite piece of Ecclesiastical Embroidery which has three Fleurs as the design motif for the crown.  The photo shows the detail for the Fleurs on the crown fairly well.  The hope for my project is to see if that  stitching can be imitated on my cross ends.

Goldwork couching added to opposite side of cross on IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery
Goldwork couching added to opposite side of cross on IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery

The plan is to branch the gold threads from the center off to the side and add additional gold threads as needed. The tails from the sides will end up plunging next to the center.  That is the plan at least for now. We will see how it works out.

Goldwork threads ready for plunging on IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design
Goldwork threads ready for plunging on IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design

At the moment, I am not turning the gold threads back on themselves, but I think I will have to give that a try. The plunging of the gold threads is being a bit challenging.  The most likely reason is the plunging has to happen through three layers of fabric. The Kona cotton, in hindsight, was perhaps not needed as a backing behind the linen after all.  Chalk it up to learning on the job.  The fear was that the Silk Dupioni would get torn up with out proper support. But there is perhaps such a thing as too much support and backing.

Background on the project can be found here:

IHS Ecclesiastical Design First Stitches

New Projects in the Works Soon

Tomorrow I will reevaluate and see if I like this before it gets too far along. Since the three cross arms are slightly different, they will all have to be carefully reviewed to see if the same stitching plan will work on all four cross ends. There may be a few things that could be done differently if the goldwork were restarted before this Ecclesiastical Embroidery design gets moving too far along. Time to sleep on it and look at the project with new eyes in the morning. Wishing you all happy stitching dreams.

Solo Dei Gloria

Be sure to visit our online store front Ecclesiastical Sewing where you may shop for Liturgical Fabrics, altar linen fabrics, church vestment making patterns, liturgical machine embroidery designschurch vestment trims and notions and so much more. You may also find us on  Ecclesiastical Sewing  on Facebook , Twitter, and Pinterest. Sing up for our mailing list  at the bottom of the page on our online store front and receive a free copy of our Small Linens Booklet as our way of saying thank you for following along.

 


Filed under: Ecclesiastical Embroidery, Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design, Ecclesiastical Sewing, Silk Dupioni Tagged: Ecclesiastical Embroidery, Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design, Ecclesiastical Embroidery pattern, Ecclesiastical Sewing, Goldwork, goldwork embroidery, IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Design, IHS Ecclesiastical Embroidery Pattern, Silk Dupioni, Watts And Co.
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